Nov 19, 2007

There must be something about the dreary days of November that resonates with the wandering hobo that lurks within me, as I have been listening lately to a compilation CD of songs recorded by Jimmie Rodgers. Another disc to which I have been listening is the fine collection of songs by Jimmie Rodgers performed by Merle Haggard called Same Train, Different Time, which also includes some insightful commentary by Haggard in between songs.

Rodgers, for the uninitiated, earned the alternate nicknames of "The Singing Brakeman," "America's Blue Yodeler," and perhaps his most important moniker: "The Father of Country Music." He combined traditional bluegrass music with the blues to great effect, inspiring the genre of country music.

One of my favorite Rodgers songs is "Waiting for a Train," which was recorded on October 22, 1928. The song depicts the lonely life of a Depression-era hobo, who has been traveling in boxcars in search of work and misses his home:

All around the water tank, waiting for a trainA thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rainI walked up to a brakeman just to give him a line of talkHe said "If you got money, boy, I'll see that you don't walkI haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show"Get off, get off, you railroad bum" and slammed the boxcar door

He put me off in Texas, a state I dearly loveThe wide open spaces all around me, the moon and the stars up aboveNobody seems to want me, or lend me a helping handI'm on my way from Frisco, going back to DixielandMy pocket book is empty and my heart is full of painI'm a thousand miles away from home just waiting for a train

And as I walk along a set of train tracks this morning, with the cold November breeze reminding me to start wearing a hat and gloves, I can only imagine the hardships of a life spent living day-to-day in boxcars and makeshift camps. Thanks to Jimmie Rodgers, the world of the railroad bum is forever a part of Americana.